YOUNGSTOWN - The construction industry can expect another local boom with the announcement of a second cryogenic gas-processing plant in the Mahoning Valley.

Hilcorp and NiSource are partnering on an estimated $300 million investment to build pipeline and a natural-gas processing plant in eastern Mahoning County.

The partnership, named Pennant Midstream LLC, is moving forward with plans to construct the Hickory Bend Pipeline System and an associated cryogenic gas-processing plant, said Chevalier Mayes, spokeswoman for NiSource.

Neither Hilcorp nor NiSource has confirmed specific locations for either the plant or the pipeline.

The pipeline will consist of 50 miles of 20- to 24-inch wet-gas gathering lines that are being installed through Northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania, she said.

Hickory Bend will have an initial capacity of 400 million cubic feet per day, with an expansion capability of up to 600 million cubic feet per day, Mayes said. In addition, an initial 200 million cubic feet per day cryogenic gas-processing plant will be located in Mahoning County.

The construction will have an impact on the local economy, said Eric Planey, vice president of international business attraction at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.

The project in Columbiana County just outside of Kensington where the areas first cryogenic processing plant is being built, employs a number of local construction workers and welders.

Local companies will have the opportunity to bid on construction of the facility and for materials that will go into the construction, he said.

There will be a lot of local impact during the construction phase.

The company estimated the plants cost would be $300 million to $500 million at the recent Ohio Oil and Gas Association conference, Planey said.

Once the facility is completed, it will have far fewer employees than you would expect from a several hundred million-dollar plant, he said...

A shale boom is under way in Ohio: Land has been leased. Nearly 190 wells have been drilled. Natural gas, oil and other liquids are being pumped from Ohios liquids-rich Utica shale. But what happens next?

Ohio is looking at an investment in excess of $10 billion in processing facilities, pipelines and compression facilities  the so-called midstream projects  to get those commodities to market.

Seven processing-separation plants for natural gas plus liquids and four pipeline networks are under construction in eastern Ohio  with a price tag exceeding $7.2 billion. And that does not include interim facilities that are starting to pop up in Ohio.

In addition to the new plants, eastern Ohio is likely to see an additional $5 billion in new pipeline projects in the next few years because the states existing pipeline system is too old and too small to handle the volume of gas and liquids that energy companies are tapping into.

The energy companies are getting a little antsy by the delays in getting such infrastructure built in eastern Ohio because the wells are increasingly ready.

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